Dancing with nettles

 In keeping with this season of drought the well of excuses has run completely dry, so your correspondent returned to the fray against Himalayan Balsam this morning. I’d like to say it was to great acclaim, but in truth any acclaim was hard to spot.

11 of us turned out today, which is a good number for this time of year. Here is a selection of that mini-throng, queuing to collect the bags for holding the extracted plants.

Looking like a troop of tea-pickers, we set to with a merry song in our hearts.

Some stayed in the shade, whilst others ventured out into the sunshine

                  

It was at least as hot as it had been for many days, but with the added joy of higher humidity thanks to some overnight rain, the main function of which was to wet the long vegetation through which we had to wade. Getting wet trousers is not the only hazard; HB as we like to call the enemy likes to grow amongst nettles, so a great deal of graceful pirouetting went on. Either we’re a stoical lot, or simply nobody got a face-full of stingers as they bent down to carefully uproot the target plants, as no agonized yells were heard. 

The inevitable contest for finding the tallest plant got off to a shaky start. 

But it looks more like a tree trunk on this one! 

This is quite tall, but… 

How about this one?

It’s quite easy to get lost in here!

It’s been noticeable how few insects there seem to be about, but a male orange-tip butterfly was spotted, and it was especially nice to find this female broad-bodied chaser dragonfly. 

We did well, with two people needed to carry a full sack…

... but there’s plenty left for next time.

And here’s Team Leader Margaret telling us how much fun that will be. 

Here’s her message of thanks

Thank you to the 11 volunteers who turned out on a hot and humid morning to take part in our continued battle against the Himalayan Balsam. Some volunteers sensibly stayed in the shade pulling up plants we had previously missed or had grown in the last two weeks. Others ventured further into the reed bed in the full glare of the sun. After an hour we had to drag ourselves away from the cries of just one more! So if anyone would like to join in we will be back, same time, same place, in two weeks when the plants will be even easier to spot.

Thank you all so much as we have never managed such a good clearance.

Margaret (for the team leaders)

A couple of summers ago work began at Pit Common to create an area to be rich in wild flowers. The seeds to get this started were brought to the site in ‘green hay’ from another NWT reserve, and it’s great to see that this summer that work is bearing beautiful fruit. There are many Ox-eye daisies, some yellow rattle and red clover, and no doubt many other species for identification by the more botanically-aware than me.

Elsewhere, a great sighting recently has been this fabulous Bee orchid. 

If you wonder how well or badly different bird species are doing in your locality, the British Trust for Ornithology has launched a new feature on their website allowing you to see just that. Using data from the Birdtrack sightings reporting database and the most recent Bird Atlas (a stocktake of all UK birds conducted during 2007–11), it reveals that since 1970, 11 breeding bird species have been lost from the Southrepps area. A further 4 species have declined in abundance since at least 1990, when they first started measuring abundance in atlases. It’s not all bad news however, as the system also reveals the breeding species that have actually increased in abundance locally.

It's well worth a look, at data.bto.org/doorstep-birds/

Balsam bashed some more

 

The well of tissue-paper thin excuses not having quite run dry yet, your usual correspondent was once again fortuitously absent from the delight torture that is known as ‘The Bashing of the Balsam’. As previously explained, this involves the removal by hand of countless emerging Himalayan Balsam plants before they get the chance to catapult their seeds into the surrounding area and watercourses, facilitating their relentless spread. Quite frankly, it’s best left to those who derive the most pleasure from it, and so today’s report comes courtesy of Team Leader Julie, who we can be sure had a thoroughly enjoyable time…

Ten volunteers arrived for today’s extreme weeding session. We started back where the team worked two weeks ago as more Himalayan Balsam had shown itself:

We then moved over towards the site boundary - lots of nettles (I can vouch for that - ouch!).

Some of the plants are definitely hunting in packs in this area: 

….and getting bigger.. 

A bit of father-son competition emerged -“mine’s bigger than yours” -  not judging from that one! 

After an hour of being bent double we called it a day with the agreement being that there is another work party required in two weeks - there is plenty left to be pulled! The bigger ones will probably be around 3-4 foot by then! So, looking like Snow White’s dwarves singing “Hi-Ho” we headed off to empty our bags at the carefully controlled dump site. 

What a haul again!! Literally thousands of HB plants pulled. 

The central area of the SSSI is looking beautiful with an array of plant life. 

Unfortunately, where there were a lot of marsh orchids appearing a few weeks ago - very few have made it to flowering - deers nibbling the heads off is suspected. But I did manage to spot one peeking through. Though it’s the Ragged Robin starring at present I think. 

Here is Team Leader Margaret’s message of thanks:

Thank you to the ten volunteers who came this morning to continue the great balsam fight. As predicted the plants had more than doubled in size but despite this many thousands were pulled and shoved into the waiting bags. We really do appreciate the help you give. I hope all spines have uncurled and you are all having a well-earned rest.

We return to the fray in two weeks’ time, when they will have doubled in size again.

Thank you

Margaret  (for the team leaders)

Balsam bashed already

 “Don’t cast a clout until May is out” as the saying goes. If that refers to the May blossom, that’s well and truly out now; to me its perfume is the smell of Spring.

Happily, we seem to have good numbers of swallows in the area, but so far as I can see swifts and house martins are in worryingly short supply. Blackcaps and whitethroats are singing from almost every bush, but the Common’s ‘signature species’ of reed buntings and warblers are not so evident. My best bird of the spring, albeit only fleetingly, was a ring ouzel that popped in on its way to its upland breeding grounds. It wasn’t reported on the Common itself, but it was in a garden adjacent to it, and I had excellent views of it on the recreation ground.

No doubt some clouts were cast on today’s working party to keep the Common’s Himalayan Balsam in check, the weather being warm (despite a nagging wind) and sunny. HB as it’s not particularly affectionately known is, as its name implies, native to the lush lower slopes of the Himalayas. It’s in Southrepps not because of our high elevation, but because some bright spark thought it would make a nice garden plant, ignoring its propensity to spread along watercourses the length and breadth of the land. It out-competes native riverside vegetation, which is bad in itself, but when it dies off in the winter it leaves denuded banks vulnerable to erosion, which is worse, especially if you’re a water vole.

So it has to go, and when eagle-eyed team leader Margaret saw that it had raised its undeniably pretty head, a balsam-bashing session was hastily convened. Eight doughty volunteers turned up, suitably attired to ward off stinging nettles and squishy ground. Your usual correspondent was not among them, having come up with yet another tissue-paper thin excuse for absence, but they were joined by our two latest volunteers, Sam and Gary. The following update therefore comes courtesy of the said team leader:

“The area was in the trees at the bottom of area A nicely sheltered from the wind.

Our youthful new volunteer was disappointed by how small the target plants were, anything from 4 cms high to 30 cms; we have promised him taller ones as the season progresses. There were however plenty of them.

Due to the extreme bending involved we only worked for an hour and pulled up literally thousands of the wee beggars.

We seek it here...

... We seek it there 

The final haul 

Nothing eventful happened (no-one falling in the mud, chased by wasps or anything very exciting), so instead here are photos of some of the plants out at the moment.

Orchid

 

Ragged robin here

Sedge 

We are going to hold another HB party in two weeks’ time: same time, same place.

And finally, here is the recently cut Area B, already growing back vigorously.”

Here is Margaret’s message of thanks:

Good afternoon.

A huge thank you to the 8 people who turned up at short notice for our first Himalayan Balsam pull of the season.  I hope none of you have suffered from being bent double for an hour. We were trying to get as many seedlings as possible. We will be repeating the exercise in two weeks time when I am sure the height and number of plants will also have doubled!.

Thanks again

Margaret (for the team leaders)

 

I’ve read a few great nature-related books lately. George Monbiot’s Regenesis: feeding the world without devouring the planet is extremely thoroughly researched, as one would expect from this highly respected author. The first part of the book sets out the many catastrophic problems caused worldwide by intensive agricultural practices and the food production industry. Once those have been set out, the remainder of the book explores some of the more optimistic developments which might, just might if adopted around the globe, save us from some of the worst effects of global heating and biodiversity depletion. It’s an important book, and well worth the read, even if it’s a tough one.

The Flow: rivers, water and wildness by Amy-Jane Beer is a beautifully written account of her explorations in the last couple of years of many of Britain's rivers; some in better condition than others. Beer was previously a very keen white water kayaker, but after the tragic death of a close friend she fell out of love with the activity. However, she still looks at rivers with a practised eye to assess their suitability for the sport. The book was published last year, but now that some politicians have woken up to the dire condition of our seas and rivers,  it’s very topical.

The Meaning of Geese by North Norfolk resident and Norfolk Wildlife Trust Wildlife Ambassador Nick Acheson is another delight. This is his first book, published this year, in which he recounts his travels by bicycle during the Covid lockdowns along the North Norfolk coast in search of the geese he has loved his entire life. It's not just for bird lovers - he describes the coastline he knows so well perfectly. And there’s a connection with our little group: soon after NWT took on the management of Southrepps Commons, Nick visited us with a film crew to include us in a film as part of the ‘Wildlife in Common’ project: it can still be seen at https://www.norfolkwildlifetrust.org.uk/news-and-articles/films/all-films/wildlife-in-common-people-and-wildlife or on Youtube at Wildlife in Common: people and wildlife - YouTube

 

Too brash for me

If you enjoy reading about nature and the English countryside but haven’t yet discovered the work of Ronald Blythe, now is the perfect time to put that right. He became famous for Akenfield, about life and work in a fictitious Suffolk village, but the people he interviewed for it were all authentically residents of two villages near his own home. The book was made into a film (Watch Akenfield online - BFI Player), directed by Peter Hall no less. That was early in Blythe’s writing career, but he published many more books than that, his final one being Next to Nature, which came out late last year, only a few months before he died at the age of 100. It is a collection of the delightful short pieces under the heading Word from Wormingford which he wrote for the Church Times. He was a lay reader – deputising for vicars across several parishes – and became a lay canon of St Edmundsbury Cathedral, but turned down the chance to become a priest.

He often describes how rural dwellers were intimately connected to nature, and his sorrow that that is generally no longer the case. He also laments how in recent decades the land itself has been abused, perhaps beyond its ability to recover. But his glasses were not rose-tinted; he well knew about the harshness of life for the rural poor. Living with only his beloved cats in the ancient farmhouse he inherited from the painter John Nash, he had many friends, not least several of the current wonderful crop of East Anglian nature writers, who took turns to care for him in his final declining years. It’s clear to me he was a man at peace with his life, and his sublime writing reflects that. Next to Nature is in stock in Norfolk’s libraries, and I heartily recommend you join the waiting list to borrow it; which might lead you on to exploring his earlier books, and indeed those of his nature-writing friends.

George, our NWT Warden, has been busy with his chainsaw on the perimeter of the main reedbed, cutting down encroaching alders. As well as leaving some of the ‘brash’ to be cleared away on today’s working party…

…he also kindly cut up the substantial stuff into useful-sized logs for future burning – with the invitation to us to take home what we wanted. (This posting is therefore not just a blog, but a log blog © J. Dowland.) There they lay, characteristically orange, like some weird salmon (if they came log-shaped).

Your rather less than usual correspondent being unable to attend once again, thanks again go to Team Leader Julie for the following report:

With the hailstones and sleet first thing we did wonder if anyone would join us this morning. But we should have known better - sixteen of us set to work removing the brash left after NWT’s tree removal work earlier in the week. Half of it was lovingly woven into a dead hedge behind the dump site off the central fen area.

Well….”lovingly” until the thin branches snapped back to thwack us in the face…poor Noel ended the first half of the session with a facial reminder of how painful that can be. No photograph Noel - we are not that cruel!

 A similar exercise also took place on the recently cleared reed bed, with people lopping branches and dragging them off behind the dumped reed.

It was a little concerning when the call went up for tea and coffee to see someone face-planted in the mud…luckily it was only an unoccupied jacket that had fallen off the branch serving as a coat hook!

As illustrated by this un-characteristically camera-shy bunch, tea time was the usual social gathering - though Noel really needed to finish his story about his short cut over a golf course in London and subsequent sharing of a flask of coffee with a mystery person…come on!

Most of the team returned for the second half of the session and yet another dead hedge was created….a great windbreak for the winch operators next time we are in this area!

Four of us ventured into Area X where NWT had cut brambles from the boundary of the site to allow a neighbour to replace their fence. We were tasked with dragging the resulting tangle of brambles clear of the boundary.

Brandishing rakes and loppers and strong gloves we took on the task.

Several cries of “ouch” went up and gloves; hats and hair were tangled in the bramble being pulled from the hedge. But we managed to get it fairly clear.

We did find a very striking fungus growth on one of the cut branches. A mini work of art.

We returned to the main party to find your usual correspondent enjoying a leisurely stroll around the boardwalk, no doubt checking we’d done a good job!

(They had! Sadly, Basil and I even arrived too late for tea, and weren't immediately welcomed.)

I was however able to admire the handiwork of three fine sawyers, who each took a turn on this recalcitrant tri-trunked tree (try saying that in a hurry!)

A good job done - the area clear of branches and ready to start re-growing in the spring.

Here’s the message of thanks from the team leaders:

Hello all

Firstly, a huge thankyou to the 16 volunteers that turned out today despite the early hail and sleet.  Luckily the weather was kind to us and stayed dry for the work party.

We were able to clear all the brash left by NWTs tree clearance work earlier in the week. We also managed to replace some broken boards on the boardwalk.

We will check in with George (our NWT warden) to see if there is anything else that we need to attend to this season.  The nesting season restricts the tasks we can now undertake, however, if George identifies items that require attention we will run a final work party in two weeks’ time.  If not we will next be in touch about Himalayan Balsam removal around May-June time. I will put an email out to confirm George's decision.

The firewood has been moved to an area off the boardwalk adjacent to our container. This is nearer to the car park.  Please help yourself to the wood if you have a use for it (but it will need seasoning for a good year before it can be burnt).  First come first served!

Thank you all for your ongoing support - it is very much appreciated.

Regards, Julie and the team leaders